Apple and IBM Go Partners to Dominate Offices

Apple and IBM have just partnered to become top leaders in enterprise software. The aim of the partnership is to “redefine the way work will get done, address key industry mobility challenges and spark true mobile-led business change,” according to the Apple Press Info. Both companies will contribute with their major strengths to transform enterprise mobility.

IBM will provide its big data, analytics expertise and cloud infrastructure while Apple will contribute with its elegant user experience provided by Apple devices like iPhone and iPad.

Apple and IBM were both fierce competitors in personal computer market, but now they have teamed up with a new goal — providing mobile devices, which have access to complex big data running in the cloud, to the businesses.

Both companies are not competing with each other in any market now and according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, this is the reason why their deal will be successful in achieving their goal.

“We do not compete on anything. And when you do that you end up with something better than either of you could produce yourself,” said Tim Cook in an interview to ReCode.

As a result of this partnership, IBM will develop more than 100 business applications exclusively for Apple iOS platform. These applications will include device management apps, corporate data analysis apps and security apps. This will result in IBM selling Apple’s devices to its clients. These apps will be using the big data and analytics expertise that IBM has developed so far.

Apple’s support service AppleCare will provide support for these apps.

This partnership will affect Microsoft’s strategies as they are planning to dive into mobile-first and cloud-first world. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced his intentions of focusing on productivity apps and mobile-plus-cloud platforms. Apple and IBM’s partnership will certainly ring a bell at Microsoft.

Not only this will affect Microsoft but it will also affect Blackberry, who were top leaders in business software and services once, but gradually lost their appeal and eventually their shares. Blackberry has been trying to make its way back into business application market.

“Apple just took a sword and just stabbed it right in the heart of Blackberry and said ‘you’re done’,” said Gerber Kawasaki, who is CEO of wealth and investment management firm.

IBM’s business apps for iOS are expected to be available in this fall with more coming in 2015. These apps will be focused on enterprises and help businesses utilize the power of IBM’s cloud and Apple’s security and smooth user experience to gain competitive advantage over their rivals.

It is a win-win deal, and both IBM and Apple will benefit from it. Their stock has already been raised as a result of this deal. Apple saw 1.5 percent raise while IBM saw almost 2 percent raise.